Warmth of the Covers
by swatkats23
Summary: With food running low in the village, Hiccup is asked to go on a hunting trip to help. And he brings Astrid along.  Rate "M" for possible future lemons
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this is my first attempt at a How to Train Your Dragon fanfic. Also my first attempt at writing one in over a year! So bear with me through this first chapter.  
FIRST CHAPTERS SUCK! well it would help if I actually story-boarded my stories. I'm also pretty open for advice or suggestions for where the story should go.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own How to Train Your Dragon, but I wish I did**

**Warmth of the Covers**

"Hey, wake up!" yells a particularly large viking.  
Hiccup jolts up in his bed, in panic. Realizing that nothing dangerous is happening, he settles back into his bed. "Is the sun even up yet?" grumbles the groggy teen.  
"Hiccup, it's mid-morning already."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes."  
"Five more minutes?" asks Hiccup.  
"Ok" answers Stoick. He walks out of the room smirking to himself, he woke up Hiccup a half hour early.  
Meanwhile, Hiccup is still contemplating getting out of bed. It is the beginning of winter and Berk is starting to cool down. Below freezing temperatures makes the prospect of leaving the warmth of the covers nearly impossible. Nobody likes leaving the cozy warmth of their bed.  
Regardless, Hiccup still manages to throw off the covers. He puts on his prosthetic leg and drunkenly walks to his closet, while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He pulls on his clothes. He hops up and down clumsily on his good foot while pulling up his pants.

"Toothless," he calls, walking down the stairs to the living room. The black dragon warmly welcomes him, gently nudging Hiccup with his nose. "Well it's good to see you too." Hiccup scratches Toothless'es neck, which results with a deep purr.  
"Hiccup," Stoick gestures for him come to the table.  
"What's up?" he asks as he sits down.  
"We are just short of food for the winter. So I'm leading the last fishing trip before the weather gets too bad," Stoick sighs. "Could you maybe hunt while I'm gone? We need all the meat we can."  
"But Dad, you know I'm not any good at hunting."  
"Hiccup, I don't want to hear it. We have more mouths to feed than ever before. You could even use Toothless."  
Dragon's don't like the cold. Not at all. Hiccup looks back at Toothless, who is relaxing close to the fire, curled up in a ball. Hiccup senses that his father is in a bad mood. Trying to make sure that an entire village has enough food is a daunting task, so Hiccup does his best to NOT get caught by Stoick's famously short temper.  
"Listen Hiccup, I'm not asking for much. Just a wild boar or two," Stoick adds. "Astrid can hunt. Ask for her help if you have too."  
"A-A-Astrid?" he stutters.

000000

Hiccup walks through freshly fallen, ankle deep snow, to the forge. Reflecting on his conversation with Stoick. Mainly, the part about Astrid. He had grown closer to Astrid since the defeat of the Red Death. But something about her still made him... Stutter... or just be nervous around her. She's just perfect. Perfect hair. Perfect eyes. Perfect curves. She's everything he could want.  
Hiccup cups his hands and blows into them, in an effort to warm up his hands.  
Hiccup is smart, and he knows it. But everything about Astrid, about girls, just confuses him. How they can be happy one second, and hitting him in the face with an axe-handle the next. And yes, that did happen.

Once he thinks he has Astrid figured out, or how she will react to something. She reacts totally different. In fact, three days before, he saw Astrid in the Great Hall, eating lunch. She was visibly troubled. He asked "is something wrong," expecting a confession or an acknowledgement for caring. But instead he got "I don't need help from you," and an angry Astrid leaving in a hurry.

Arriving the Forge, his cold hands slip off the door handle and he runs into to door. He looks around to see if anyone noticed his 'slip up.' Satisfied, he opens the door.  
"I'm glad you could make it! Get enough beauty sleep?" laughs Gobber.  
"Ha Ha very funny," Hiccup responds sarcastically. "So what do we have to repair today?"  
"Well, without dragon attacks every other night, we don't have many weapons that need fixing."  
"Oh," says hiccup, warming his hands on the smelting furnace. "Soooo, what should I do?"  
"Well," Gobber thinks for a second. "Take the day off."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah really! Now go enjoy yourself!"  
"Thanks Gobber," responds Hiccup.  
He isn't use to being out of the forge so early. Of course he never works for more than three or four hours. This gives him time to plan for his hunting trip, although he really doesn't know where to start when it comes to hunting.  
_Maybe I should ask Astrid_, he thinks to himself.

Hiccup starts walking to Astrid's house, this time walking through shin deep snow. The all-too-familiar frozen toe feeling starts to kick in.  
He knocks on her door. After a minute or so she opens up. "Oh hey Hiccup," she says, leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed. "What's up?" she asks bluntly.  
"We, uh, well," Hiccup collects himself. "The village is kinda low on food and I was wondering if you would go hunting with me."  
"Sure," she responds. "I could really use an excuse to get out of the house."  
"Oh ok," says Hiccup, still somewhat confused. "We leave tomorrow morning then?"  
"Sure, sounds good."  
Hiccup walks away once again questioning his knowledge of girls. It's not just something you can study up on. And as far as he knows, Berk doesn't have any books on women.

00000

Later, at his house, Hiccup relaxes on the couch, just far enough away to feel the heat of the fire. Stoick left, saying he would be back in three or four days. So Hiccup was pretty much alone, except for the company of Toothless, who makes a pretty good pillow.  
Sure Hiccup is excited for their hunting trip, but he can't help but feel a little awkwardness over it. The 'teenage' side of his brain is catching up with him. The number of times he has imagined her naked or the number of make-out scenarios he has conjured up are uncountable. And he can't help but think of how he will end up "Saving the Day" and saving Astrid from certain death and make her fall madly in love with him. In all reality, Hiccup will probably be the one who needs saving.  
"You would save me, wouldn't you buddy?" he asks, Toothless lifts his head up and nods. Then he poofs a smoke ring in the shape of a heart. "Awww I love you too." Hiccup says with a hint of sarcasm.  
_Well I didn't teach him that, but it's pretty cute_. Hiccup walks over to Toothless and lays against him, Hiccup unbuckles his annoying prosthetic limb and stares blankly at the ceiling. He falls asleep pondering what the next day will bring.

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**Well i hope you enjoyed it! Please leave comments! (they make me feel warm and fuzzy inside)**

**Once again I'm open for suggestion as to where the story should go, but I do have a second chapter planned.**

**Oh, and sorry for the rather short chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2! sorry for the long time updating but i had a lot of silly mistakes that my friend caught! otherwise i would have updated yesterday**

**Disclaimer: I dont own How to Train Your Dragon, but i do have the httyd videogame!**

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Astrid usually wakes up at the crack of dawn, and today is no different. She is already packed for her trip with Hiccup, the usual: bow-and-arrow, battle axe, a blanket, other necessities.

She's pretty excited for the trip, after being stuck in the house for several days. And she usually jumps at any opportunity to help the village. Really though, she's happy to be spending time with Hiccup. Although she would never admit it, she is Astrid after all.

There is a knocking on the door, waking Hiccup up from his sleep. "Just a second!" he calls, scrambling up from the floor. He swiftly latches on his prosthetic leg and walks to the door.

"Hey," says Hiccup. Astrid's standing at the door, carrying her basket pack on one shoulder. "I'm not quite ready yet, come in."

"So what exactly should I pack?" asks Hiccup.  
"Well," responds Astrid, "I'm not expecting it to be that long of a trip, so probably just some food and other basic necessities."

Hiccup turns and runs up the stairs to his room, leaving Astrid at the door. She is becoming visibly irritated, tapping her foot on the floor and crossing her arms. Not that she is surprised, Astrid had been to Hiccups house before, and she knows that he likes to sleep in, and that he is rarely ready in time. Maybe that's why she's irritated, the truth is, even she doesn't know why.

"Ready!" Hiccup calls from his room. He hops down the stairs two steps at a time, huffing and puffing from his fury packing. Hiccup walks over to Toothless and scratches his neck. "We'll be back in a day, alright buddy?" Toothless nods as if he knows what Hiccup was talking about.

Berk, by this time of year, already has two feet of snow on the ground, which is a lot considering that it hasn't been a month since the first snowfall. But the walk to the outskirts of the village is usually easy since the paths are well traveled. After that, you don't necessarily walk though snow, as much as you wade through it.

"So where are we hunting?"  
"In the forest," responds Astrid, who still isn't being much for conversation. "All the snow will make it easier to track animals." She looks back at Hiccup, "Are you taking notes! For Thor's sake!"

"What? It sounded important," says Hiccup. Astrid chuckles to herself.

"Ooooo," says Snotlout as they walk past him. "Astrid and Hiccup are going on a little love trip!"

"Shut up, Snotlout," counters Astrid. "You haven't done anything but sit on your ASS instead of helping the village." Snotlout shuts up immediately and Astrid walks away with her head held high.

"Don't you think that was a little much?" asks Hiccup.

"No, he deserved it."

Astrid and Hiccup leave the village. Progress is slow because of the amount of snow on the ground, but they manage. A half hour later, they make it to the forest. However, it started to snow on the way. Not just a light snow or a little dusting, practically a blizzard. Hiccup had a hard time seeing Astrid, who was walking only 5 feet in front of him.

"Ok, in weather like this, it would be nearly impossible to track the animals. So we will have to wait for them to come to us."

"Shouldn't we head back or something?" asks Hiccup. "This weather is kind of bad."

"What? No! We are Vikings! We don't get scared by a little snow!"

"Ugh," shrugs Hiccup. Astrid leads them to an over watch, covering a clearing.

**0000000000**

"Can we stop yet?" asks Hiccup. "We have been sitting here for hours." The weather had not improved, if fact, it snowed so hard that their feet where now covered in a thick layer of it. It's also beginning to get dark out.

"No," responds Astrid

"You're started to get frostbite on your nose, and I can't feel my fingers."

"Fine," says Astrid, unwilling to admit that Hiccup's right.

"So where are we gonna stay?" asks Hiccup. The snow has covered all possible sources of kindling for a fire. But even if they could get their firewood, they wouldn't be able to start it. They forgot to bring fire starters. Hiccup and Astrid begin to realize how bad their situation actually is. This storm is bad even for Berkian standards, which says a lot considering that it snows nine months a year. The temperature is also dropping because it's nighttime.

"We need shelter!" yells Hiccup through the howling wind.

"I know!" Astrid yells back. She and Hiccup struggle through the hip high snow drifts. Astrid looks around desperately for a cave or a hut. The wind nipping at her skin through her jacket suddenly gets more intense. Her fingers are starting to go painfully numb. She can feel the cold sapping away her strength.  
Unfortunately, they wander their way out of the more dense part of the forest, and into a more open area with less trees, which also means less cover from the wind.

"There!" yells Hiccup, pointing towards a hill.

"I don't see anything," says Astrid.

"We can dig a cave into snow," explains Hiccup. "It's the only shelter we will get." Hiccup grabs Astrid's arm and pulls her towards the hill. She stumbles, but Hiccup catches her and pulls her arm over his shoulders and holds her up. "Don't worry, I have you," he assures her. They walk start to walk up the hill, but the amount of snow prevents them from getting up. "Right here will have to do." Hiccup drops his basket pack and starts furiously digging a hole into the snow. He ignores the pain in his own hands. After a few minutes, he manages to dig a hole big enough for two people to lay down in, dug all the way to the ground itself. He emerges from the hole and pulls Astrid in.  
As they settle into the pitch-black cave, Hiccup lets out a long sigh. He can hear the wind howling outside the cave's entrance. Next to him, Astrid is shivering intensely. Hiccup takes off his jacket and starts to put it on Astrid, but she shrugs it off.

"I don't need help from you," she says defiantly, while still shivering.

"Yes, yes you do," explains Hiccup. "We need to stay warm, or we will die. And the only source of heat we have right now is each other."

"Like body heat?"

"Well... yeah I guess."

"So your saying we should snuggle up for warmth? Do we have to?" asks Astrid, still shivering.

"I don't think we have much of a choice," says Hiccup. Defeated, Astrid rolls and puts her arm around his chest and lightly pull herself to Hiccup. He can still feel her is shivering, without thinking, he pulls her up onto his chest, so that her head is resting on his shoulder.  
Hiccup goes wide-eyed for a second, half expecting Astrid to hit him or something. Instead, she settles right in.

At first, he almost winces at her coldness of her body. After a bit, her shivering goes away and she starts to relax. She puts her hands in a loop around his neck, and falls asleep.

_It's funny_, Hiccup thinks to himself_. Never in a million years would I think that I would be in a hole, dug in the snow, in the woods, with Astrid_.

Before now, Hiccup hadn't actually thought about the any "mischievous" things about Astrid. He had been in too much of a survival mode. For now, it's going to stay that way. He's just happy to be alive.

He searches for his basket pack, but mentally curses himself when he remembers than he left it outside. However, he does find Astrid's pack. Luckily, she packed a blanket. Hiccup manages to spread the blanket over himself and Astrid without waking her up. Soon after, he falls asleep to, holding Astrid in a tight embrace.

**00000000000**

Hiccup wakes up fairly slowly, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. The first thing he notices is that Astrid is on him. _Astrid is on me?_ Hiccups mind races through all the possible things that could mean. Astrid wakes up, she stretches and hits Hiccup in the face by accident.

"Oh, sorry," she says with a smile. Then she realizes that she is actual laying on Hiccups chest, and awkwardly rolls off. Did I sleep on him all night? Did he save me yesterday? Was I so weak that I needed help? There are all questions running through her mind right now. Well, she kind of liked sleeping on him, she never really had been taken care of before. And certainly wouldn't have let anyone help her.

Hiccup is looking at her with a confused look of "what now?" and "did I do anything wrong?" Or at least he was trying to see her through the dim light of their cave. His mind is making up for lost time last night NOT thinking about doing anything with her. He feels a blow to the gut.

"That's for letting me Freeze," says Astrid, then she leans over and kisses him. "And that's for everything else."

Hiccup is taken by surprise, but this time he is determined to not the moment go to waste. He leans over and kisses Astrid back. She kisses him again. Hiccup hugs Astrid and pulls her in closer. Each kiss getting more and more intense. Hiccup can feel everything, her heartbeat, and her breasts on his chest. Her lips on his lips.

Hiccup is finally getting to touch the curves he has dreamed about for so long, his heartbeat starts to race. His hand starts to wander from her hips up towards her chest, following her slender figure up to her hair. A bulge starts to form in hiccup pants. Astrid, who's straddling his legs, feels this and immediately rolls off Hiccup.

"We should start heading back," says Astrid, breathing hard.

"Yeah that's probably a good idea," replies Hiccup. Both of them trying to analyze everything that just happened

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**Hope you enjoyed it! remember to review, it makes me happy! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Yeah, so when I was typing "finishing" up typing this on monday night, I had about 700 words and was aiming for a 1000 word chapter. Yeah, 800 words later, I'm done! I was feeling guilty for such a short chapter too. Anyways, my beta is being slow and I really wanted to update tonight so I'm going ahead and updating anyway, hehehe :P**

**But don't worry, I did the best I could correcting it myself, althogh she is a 4.0 student and is super smart. I apologize for any silly mistakes I missed correcting!**

**Disclaimer: I dont own HTTYD, but the van I drive is pretty sweet.**

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Hiccup and Astrid walk through the storm, which is less powerful than it was the day before. Walking is a chore with all the new snow on the ground. Each step is heavy and awkward. Even more awkward, is the silence between them. So far, neither of them have said anything, and they have been walking for almost two hours.

Soon enough, they are in sight of Berk, and Hiccup and Astrid's can no longer put off talking about it. "So, about this morning," starts Hiccup.

"Yeah?"

"Was it ok?"

"Well yeah, it was kind of fun," answers Astrid with a little giggle.

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh," Astrid blushes, and turns to try and hide it. Even though her cheeks were already rosy from the harsh wind.

"Like, for us. We don't have a problem doing that stuff?"

"I don't, you?"

"Well I could get use to it," Hiccup and Astrid laugh. He can't believe that believe that they actually did that. They made-out, in a hole. That's just awesome. Though it did end abruptly, and Hiccup can't help but think that it was his fault. Then again, who could blame him for not controlling his dick in a situation like that? And Astrid defiantly shied away from it. He chuckles to himself, _so much for being the fearless Astrid_. They stop in front of Hiccups house. "You know, I saved your life yesterday."

"Oh, right," Astrid pauses and pushes her bangs out of her eyes, then she lets out a sigh and pulls her battle axe up to Hiccups throat, so it's barely touching his skin. Hiccup throws his hands up in front of himself defensively, but it's too late, the blade's already pressed to his throat. "If you tell ANYONE about that, I swear to Thor, I will kill you!"

"Ok, got it," Hiccup lowers his arms as Astrid is lowering her axe. He rubs his neck with his hand, feeling to make sure everything is intact.

"But thanks," she hugs him and gives him a peck on the lips. Hiccup has the vague beginnings of a smile forming. "I'll probably be over tonight."

"Ok, see you then," Hiccup says as he turns and walks towards his house. About midway to his house, he looks back at Astrid as she walks away. She is walking with her usual swagger, which makes her butt sway as she walks. Hiccup watches for a few seconds. He turns away just in time to open the door rather than run into it. He takes one step into the house, then WHAM, he gets tackled by Toothless, back out of the house and into the snow. Hiccup would normally be surprised by this, but it definitely isn't the first time he has been tackled by Toothless. One time, Stoic opened the door and Toothless came flying out and tried to tackle Stoic on accident, but he just got pushed back a few feet by Toothless. He then laughed and walked inside nonchalantly.

"I'm happy to see you too!" says Hiccup while receiving several licks to the face. "Ugh! Stop that!"

"I don't think you have been giving him enough love!" Astrid yells through the storm.

"I see that!" he yells back, Astrid gives a final wave before disappearing around the corner. Toothless let's Hiccup get up, then starts nudging Hiccup and looking at the sky. "You want to go flying? Toothless, it's really stormy right now and your cold blooded, cold blooded and cold don't mix!" Honestly though,

Hiccup did want to go flying. He misses the feeling of the wind through his hair, and the exhilaration of speeding through the air.

Suddenly, Toothless shutters violently and hops back inside and goes straight to the fire. 'Yep, that's what I thought.' Normally, dragons would be hibernating during the winter, but since they have sources of warmth like the Berkian house and the fireplaces, they don't have too. So it's also kind of hard to blame a dragon for sleeping a lot, when it really should be hibernating.

Stoic isn't home yet, so Hiccup assumes that the storm prevented them from returning. Or maybe the trip is just taking longer than expected. Hiccup steps out the back door and grabs a fish for Toothless, he tosses the fish through the air at Toothless and he catches it and eats it. "Nice catch!" says Hiccup with some excitement in his voice.

Hiccup plops on his couch and stares at the ceiling. He certainly has a lot to think about. What he is going to tell his dad when he finds out the didn't catch anything, though the fact that he is alive and didn't freeze to death out there should be enough. Also, where exactly his dad is and when he is getting back. Lastly, about Astrid, and about the events that happened that morning, and what will happen tonight.

00000

Astrid starts her walk to Hiccup's house. By now the storm is just about cleared up, with a strong moon shining on the clouds to make a nice and evenly light. Her house is unbelievably quiet, with no one in it but her and her Nadder, who spends most of its time sleeping. So she was kind of itching to get out of there at get some human contact. As she walks, the cold winter air nips at her face and pierces her leggings. She can handle it though, after all, she is a Viking.

Her mind flashes back to when she was saved by Hiccup, how nice it was. She shakes that thought out of her head, she is Astrid, she has no weakness, or at least that's what she tells herself. It's true, for the most part.

She arrives at Hiccups house and knocks on the door. He opens the door after ten seconds or so. "Hey, come in," says Hiccup. He is wearing some comfy looking fuzzy pants and a baggy t-shirt. "You're here kind of early."

"Yeah, well no one is at my house, so it's really boring over there. And I can't practice throwing my axe or anything," they walk over and sit on the couch, which still has blankets on it. Hiccup took a little nap earlier.

You know, I'm a pretty good swordsman."

"Really, how come I never knew that?" says Astrid, who has curiosity for.

"Well I was super clumsy at first, but when I was eleven I found out that I was left-handed, At least for sword fighting."

"How could you not know what handiness you are?" laughs Astrid.

"Yeah yeah."

There is a pause for a moment. "Wanna spar a little?"

"What?"

"Yeah!" she says excitedly, "I even brought my axe"

"You brought your axe?"

"Never leave home without it" she point to her ax leaning up against the wall

next to the door.

"How did I not notice that when she came in?" Hiccup mutters under his breath. "Sorry but that will probably end badly, and my dad would definitely kill me if we destroyed the house by sparring." _And she might kill me._

"Makes sense," says a disappointed Astrid.

Hiccup and Astrid sit quietly, listening to the crackling of the fire, and gentle murmuring of Toothless's sleep noises from somewhere else in the house.

The fire burnt down to a somewhat dim glow, flickering light randomly across the room. Hiccup gets entranced by the moment. He looks over at Astrid, light beautifully shining on her face. There's a glint of firelight in her eye as she looks over at Hiccup. Timidly, he leans over to kiss Astrid gently.

Astrid, not Hiccup, makes the next move. She puts her hand gently on Hiccups chest, which does wonders for his confidence. He wraps an arm around Astrid's waist, and the other he cups to her face. With this, Astrid gets more comfortable too, putting her hand on the back of his neck and pulling him in even closer. They sink deeper into the couch.

Astrid adjusts herself so she is straddling Hiccups legs, but does so without breaking their lip-lock. She grinds into Hiccup, totally forgetting about the multiple spikes built into her skirt, which dig into his groin. "Ouch!" says Hiccup, breaking their kiss.

"What?" Astrid says, breathing hard. She realizes the problem, and discards the skirt, tossing it on the floor. "There," she says, and proceeds pushing into Hiccup. This time, there is no armored skirt between her and the bulge in his pants, but she doesn't care. They are locked in a very long, and very intense kiss. Hiccup loves the lush feeling and texture of her lips, and decides to be a little bold. He uses his tongue, a trick he overheard from some of the younger adults of the village, but Hiccup, obviously, has no experience with it. Astrid is also in an adventurous mood, and takes on this new kissing technique like a challenge. Without skipping a beat, she reacts to him. Their tongues dancing like pros. He breaks off the kiss as the last bit of firelight quits out. "We should probably get the fire going," says Hiccup, exhausted and out of breath.

"Nah," she pushes Hiccup so they are laying across the couch. "We don't need the fire," she says as she pulls the blankets over them. Hiccup puts and around Astrid, who is using his shoulder as a pillow.

They both settle into the couch, protected snugly by the warmth of the covers.

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**Sorry if that was a little choppy, BLAME MY BETA FOR BEING SLOW! (Don't actually do that, I can't afford to get her angry :P)**

**Please review!**

**P.S. Sorry 122boy and HTTYD .fan.4ever2010, I know I'm horrible at updating fast**


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